See Commissioner Rob Jones's response in this week's print edition
Saying the whole issue has taken on a life of its own, Board of Education Chairman John Trammell told those gathered at last Thursday night’s meeting that the board would waive a $50,000 fee they had planned to charge the county for the use of three gymnasiums.
With a catch.
Trammell said if Commissioner Rob Jones takes the offer, he must return the $75 registration fee the county collected from the 423 kids who signed up to play recreation league basketball.
After parents and sports enthusiasts got involved in the issue following the local recreation board’s recommendation that Jones not pay such a high figure to use the facilities and cancel basketball season, Trammell defended the board, saying no one asked them about the facts surrounding the issue.
“Unfortunately, no one, including the recreation board, saw fit to gather the facts or the full story from the board of education at any time prior to publishing letters intended to raise tempers and stir controversy,” Trammell said on behalf of the entire board.
Trammell said the board was never approached by the commissioner or the recreation department director, Melinda Logan, about the use of any gyms other than those included in the intergovernmental agreement: Hill City and Harmony elementary schools and the old gym at Jasper Elementary. Those speaking at the Thursday night meeting said, aside from the too high price tag, the deal for three gyms simply would not allow for enough practice times for all the teams.
“Historical precedent led to this intergovernmental agreement,” Trammell said. “For a number of years the Pickens County government used the school system’s gymnasiums for recreational basketball. For the use of these facilities, the school system was not charged “dump fees” for the disposal of school garbage. This amounted in a savings to the school system of between $20,000 to $25,000 per year. This reciprocating arrangement continued until three years ago. The county and the school system both contracted with independent companies to provide these services thus ending this mutually beneficial agreement.
“Three years ago the county and the school board traded “in kind” services. This involved the county continuing to use the gyms and the school board gaining services from the county such as bulldozing, paving, etc.
“Two years ago and last year, the services needed by the school system and provided by the county declined dramatically. Even with this decline in services, the school system allowed the county recreation department to continue its use of the gyms without interruption.
This was done at no cost to the county government except for the county paying for a monitor/ custodian at the schools when practice or games were taking place. This money was paid directly to those individuals. No money was paid to the board of education for use of the gyms. The school system has not collected any money from the Pickens County government for the use of the gyms for the last two years.
In a written statement, Trammell said, “Last spring, as the budget process was underway, the school system investigated necessary ways to reduce costs. The board directed the superintendent to set up a meeting with the commissioner to explore reducing the more than $500,000 that the county assesses the school system for collecting taxes or to help the schools off-set the costs of gym maintenance and upkeep during recreation basketball by assisting with these costs. The county can charge the school system up to 2.5 percent of the budget to collect school taxes. This collection money is included in the school budget process and is part of the costs that determines the school tax millage rate. This money can be spent at the discretion of the commissioner.
“In the original meeting in May, the commissioner did not want to agree to a reduction in the 2.5 percent the county receives but preferred to investigate an intergovernmental agreement for the use and maintenance of the school gymnasiums for the recreation department. Even though the commissioner did not want to reduce the above mentioned percentage, nor, do we suspect, did he want to assist in the maintenance and upkeep of these gyms, he did realize that it was difficult for the board to continue to take school tax dollars and use those tax dollars to provide recreation for the county without any reasonable reciprocation.”
Trammell went on to request the commissioner put a line item budget in the county’s budget specifically for recreation for all age groups.
“We ask those concerned the following question: if the schools provide the gyms at no cost to the county, and if parents pay $75 per child and ask for sponsors, what expense does the county have for basketball?” Trammell asked. “The youth basketball program does deserve community support and, yes the kids are worth it. We agree the program and the kids are worth a line item in the budget. The county should be compelled to cover the costs without even asking.”
Byron Long, a parent and youth recreation coach, spoke at the meeting, saying he was not laying blame on any one group, but the agreement reached by those in charge would not provide enough gym space for all the teams to have practice times.
“I’m not laying all this on you guys. This (agreement) is crazy. They never should have signed this. It’s a great deal for the schools. It’s not a good deal for the county. I’m aware of the tax collection situation. That is an issue, and I don’t blame you guys for trying to get some of that back. I’ve talked to Robert, and he has reasons for why. We feel like the commissioner and the recreation board have made a bad decision.”
Long, a youth basketball coach, said in years past he has wound up taking money from his own pocket to rent gym space for his teams to practice on.
“It’s nobody’s fault. I guess it’s been years and years of nobody building facilities that’s brought us to this point,” Long said. “We should not ask (the board of education) to pay for anything that doesn’t pertain to the education of our kids. I think the county should pay for the use of the facilities – I’m just not sure about the $50,000.”
Britt Massey also spoke to the board, presenting a letter from Recreation Director Melinda Logan, which asked for the use of five of the school system’s gymnasiums.
Board members repeated that they had never been asked for more gyms than what was included in the original agreement.
There are 423 kids signed up to play on 53 basketball teams this season.
For a complete look at the board’s comments, log on to www.pickensprogress.com
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